immigration policy

May 21, 2015 -
The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has launched a "Southern Voices" oral history project to capture the stories of Southern leaders working for social and economic justice. The latest installment focuses on organizing for immigration reform.

April 17, 2015 -
The Welcoming America movement, which has its roots in the South, is being hailed by a White House task force as a model approach for helping communities be more proactive in addressing immigration.

April 10, 2015 -
Immigrant mothers held at a private family detention center in Karnes City, Texas went on five-day hunger strike last week to press for their and their children's release -- and they say they will renew the strike if their demands are not met soon.

March 20, 2015 -
Fifty years after the Voting Rights Act was introduced in Congress with bipartisan support, House lawmakers are trying to restore a key part of the law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Just one Southern Republican is on board so far: Rep. Carlos Curbelo of South Florida.

March 13, 2015 -
After a protracted political fight over immigration policy, Congress recently passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The final bill doesn't repeal the president's recent deportation relief programs, but it appropriates billions of dollars for draconian immigration enforcement.

February 23, 2015 -
This weekend, a private prison incarcerating immigrant prisoners in Willacy County, Texas erupted into a major uprising. Incarcerated immigrants and advocates have for years been warning that these prisons are tinderboxes of horrendous conditions waiting to explode.

February 19, 2015 -
Though its immigrant deportation relief efforts have been put on hold, the Obama administration continues to carry out its policy of detaining Central American immigrant children and families apprehended at the border. Attorneys for the detainees recently took legal action to address harsh conditions at the government's privately-managed family detention centers.

February 6, 2015 -
Backlash against the South's recent rapid growth in the immigrant population may be contributing to the region's negative response to the president's executive action on immigration. But demographic trends may be fueling a more welcoming environment in the region's cities.